Nash upbeat despite anticlimactic end to stellar career

EL SEGUNDO, California (Reuters) - Steve Nash could have felt cheated after assorted injuries over the past two years culminated in his retirement from the NBA, but he prefers to focus on all the positives during a stellar career.

A two-time NBA most valuable player who is one of the best point guards ever to grace the game, the 41-year-old Canadian held a news conference at the Los Angeles Lakers' practice facility in El Segundo on Tuesday to mark his formal farewell.

"Obviously my career didn't end in the fashion that I wanted it to," Nash, smartly dressed in a navy blue suit, told Reuters after being warmly applauded by reporters and Lakers officials after the conference ended.

"At the same time, I've had an incredibly long career, 18 seasons. I've had back issues predominantly throughout my career and so when you have that in perspective, I could have very easily been finished eight, nine or 10 years into my career.

"I feel very fortunate that I have played as long as I have done, regardless of the way it's ended."

Nash, whose remarkable career also included two spells with the Phoenix Suns and one with the Dallas Mavericks, officially announced his retirement on Saturday in a letter published on The Players' Tribune website.

"It was hard," Nash said of his decision to quit the game. "In the end, it declared itself. I realized that I just couldn't do it any more. I couldn't sustain the rigors of the game with my back and so it (the decision) presented itself for me.

"It probably could have been something that I could have accepted earlier but I had to go through and open every door to try to find a way through and ultimately it didn't happen. But when it did, I felt sure and I've never second-guessed it."
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